Tal-Goth
History Tal-Goth, born of a broken family, with a mother who had done everything she could to save him from an abusive father that would have taken him down a terrible path, a path of evil that would have turned Tal-Goth against humanity and all living beings no matter who or what they were. They lived on the run, moving from place to place at a moment's notice, if any sign showed that his father had caught a whiff of their trail, until finally they heard news of his death, a letter was sent from the father, the fact that they had received it was enough to fill them with terror, his father knew where they were from the beginning and could have taken them at any time, this entire time he had always been watching, they had no idea why he never did anything, but they had no time to worry about that as much as they normally would have as they read the contents of the letter, according to the letter his father had grown ill, there wasn't much information as to why or what happened, but the letter went on to state that Tal-Goth had an inheritance waiting for him, should he choose to find it, it could grant him great power, if he had the will to control it that is. They could almost feel his father's sinister glare and laugh as they read this part, like he was egging him on to try, to prove himself to be his descendant, the letter continued on to say that his father would probably have passed away by the time Tal-Goth received this letter, this was the best news out of the entire letter in their eyes, and they finally felt like they could live freely if it were true. After this some time passed, they had moved again since then, hoping it would do anything, even knowing that if his father were still alive that, with that letter as proof, he'd find them anyways, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, nothing happened that showed they were being followed anymore, maybe they were finally free, just maybe... As more time passed Tal-Goth continued to grow and learn to survive in order to protect his mother with his own strength, a vow he took upon himself, as cliche as it sounds, he owed it to her regardless, she was the only one who had never betrayed him, and had protected him this whole time. Of his slowly expanding list of skills was now hunting, he practised on his own by learning to hide well enough to watch other animals hunt and show their survival instincts, he learned from this and started to put it into practise so that he could put food on the table as much as possible, if he didn't they would never survive, the meager earning his mother received as a servant to a local dark elf chieftan just wasn't enough, he continued to master these skills more and more, going out in to the forest day after day, returning home only after he managed a kill, arriving late into the evening sometimes but that didn't matter, as long as he fed himself and his mother it was good enough, when he did his mother would cook it for them and they'd try to enjoy their meal as much as possible despite their desperate situation, they'd talk, even laugh at times, a bit of happiness to light their path. One day Tal-Goth had been hunting much later than usual, the struggle to find more wild animals was becoming apparent, they'd probably need to travel again soon to somewhere with more food available, it was strangely quiet, even for the normal form of quiet they had grown used to, no sound from nearby life, even insects, it was eerie... Tal-Goth rushed inside to find the fire almost out and blood on the floor, some on the door, a trail of it leading into the single bedroom they had where his mother normally slept, he was terrified, he didn't even know if he wanted to follow it, as he slowly pushed open the curtain he had hung from the doorway to give his mother privacy, he found her on the floor, blood everywhere, clothes torn off in places he never would have wanted to see, and the chieftan his mother served wiping his hands and smiling directly at him, he clearly was the one who committed the crime, so why, why was he smiling, was this fucking funny to him? Tal-Goth lost it, he drew the knife he had used for hunting and rushed at him in bloodthirsty rage, he ducked low, he knew he had to use the skills he had learned from hunting in order to kill someone strong enough to become a chieftan, as he ducked low he slid to the right to fake coming in for a left hook, the chieftan only saw him as a weak useless peasant and underestimated Tal-Goth as he fell for the feint and attempted to grab Tal-Goth's arm, Tal-Goth smiled momentarily as he came in from the right and recoiled his left arm, jabbing the knife deep into the chieftan's lower abdomen, but he didn't stop there, he knew it wouldn't be enough, so he kept going, he ripped the knife back out and cut upwards across the chieftan's chest as the chieftan was still falling back from the first stab, the chieftan yelled out in pain and rage. Tal-Goth still didn't let up there, while the chieftan tried to bring his dominant hand down on Tal-Goth's face, Tal-Goth in turn chose to sacrifice his face and accept the blow if it meant getting the upperhand he knew he needed, as the swing came down on him, he brought his knife up to the chieftan's neck and jabbed forward with everything he had, managing to dig the knife into the chieftan's throat as his hand hit Tal-Goth's face in some sort of almost comedic double knockout, and it'd be funny if it wasn't for the knife now bleeding out the chieftan and the body of his mother on the floor, Tal-Goth was sent flying backwards, directly into the wall... Tal-Goth woke up the next morning to find himself in a bed, confused, he vaguely remembered the previous night, and the pain he suffered, as he searched through his memories he saw his mother's body and he nearly vomited in rage, disgust, and horror, jumping out of the bed he found himself in a completely different room, it was nice, it was well furnished, decorations and all that would normally come from someone of a higher class in dark elf society, maybe even a noble, this only left Tal-Goth even more confused, he turned to see his father, or what was left of his father, now only a weakened broken down old man, his father smiled faintly at Tal-Goth and all Tal-Goth could do was slowly step backwards until he fell back onto the bed, his father chuckled and said, "Relax son, i'm not as strong as i used to be... i highly doubt i could hurt you now," and Tal-Goth was still only speechless, his father proceeded to explain what had happened, how he found him sprawled out against the wall with a broken nose and bruised face, and the chieftan torn to shreds by the blade of a knife, and his mother.... in her sorry state laying there, his father went silent at this... leaving Tal-Goth confused, wondering, what could possibly be going through the old bastard's head, after all he had done, was this, a sign of actual humanity and regret? His father coughed and went on, saying how he brough Tal-Goth here and that the letter was only partially a lie in hopes that he and his mother would finally be able to live peacefully, the old man showed only pain in his face as he spoke these words, Tal-Goth wanted to hate the old man and couldn't forgive him, but he could tell the feelings were genuine, and decided that his focus should be spent more on the issue at hand, that his mother was dead, and so was the man who killed her, that he was now all alone with his father, the man that ruined their lives, and that he needed to survive, for his mother's sake... Time has passed since then and Tal-Goth had decided to live with his father and study and learn, his father doing everything possible to teach him and make up for things he'd done to them, clearly regretting that his choices had caused the death of his wife and Tal-Goth's mother... Tal-Goth learned in the ways of magic, the ways the dark elves had spent centuries teaching only the upper echelon of dark elven society, it was clear to Tal-Goth now that his father was not just some ordinary man, and that it would be wise to learn from him and make use of him over the next 2 years despite his hatred for him, in this time Tal-Goth learned much, of the world, of magic, of how versatile and powerful it truly was, and how it could even control the dead... even bring them back..... The time has come, Tal-Goth has reached the age of 16 and is now ready to learn more, to become better in the school of magic, his father knowing it would be better for him to learn more than the specific magics he could teach, pulled every string he could to get Tal-Goth to a place called the Citadel, where he would then take up Necromancy in order to find a way to properly bring his mother back from the dead.